Iran plans to increase its track lengths to 25,000 kilometers by 2025 from under 15,000 kilometers now.
Presstv.com
. Iran
has chalked up a plan for $25 billion of investment to modernize and
expand its rail network, Managing Director of the Islamic Republic of
Iran Railways Mohsen Poursaeed-Aqaei says. . The country
is courting investors with a number of incentives as it seeks to turn
into a regional transportation hub by establishing a railway
corridor linking the Persian Gulf and the subcontinent to the Central
Asia and beyond. . “We have defined about $25 billion of rail
projects for which we have prepared incentive packages to attract
domestic and foreign investment,” . Poursaeed-Aqaei told the Tasnim news
agency on Tuesday. . The push for investment comes amid growing
international enthusiasm for trade with Tehran while the country seeks
to profit from its coastlines in the Persian Gulf and the Caspian to
build an integrated transit route. . The International North–South
Transport Corridor between India, Russia, Iran, Europe and the Central
Asia for freight transportation by the ship, rail, and road will join
the Silk Road. . Officials say Iran’s plans include increasing the
country’s track lengths to 25,000 kilometers by 2025 from under 15,000
kilometers now. According
to Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Reza Netmatzadeh, Iran
needs $1.5 billion of annual investment in the sector in the next six
years. . Iran is a vast country, with an area of more than 1.6
million square kilometers. Its rail network accounts for less than 11%
of the overall transportation, in which 33 million people are carried
annually in the country of about 80 million. Much of Iran's transportation is road-based characterized by high accident rates and death toll. . Deputy
Transportation Minister Valiollah Afkhami-Rad recently said Iran is
interested in the Japanese technology for establishing high-speed rail
in order to expand its intercity transportation. . Representatives
of more than 20 Japanese companies are currently visiting Iran with
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida who struck an agreement on a bilateral
investment pact on Monday.
